Right on Hue

Someone once told me that there is no such thing as color memory. Semester after semester of color theory classes, and my fair share of time with a paint deck lead me to believe otherwise. Once I bet a co-worker I could name the existing paint on the wall at a client's house. We went back the next day. I won. The chip matched, dead on. Just as a scent or song cue the brain to scan memory files and finger through favorite experiences, so color does for me. Every time I hear Yellow by Coldplay, I think of this. I'm pretty sure that memory is there to stay.

It's popping up all over. I've read it on fashion blogs and in newspaper articles. Yellow is the color of 2009. Pantone says so and so it goes. I bought a yellow sweater many months ago without the slightest clue I was in the fashion-know. I donned my yellow sweater at church a few weeks ago. The sunshiney hue made me happy. It makes me think of Aunt B. Of her yellow trellis wallpaper in the kitchen nook, and her yellow gardening clogs just inside the back door. Of yellow Heller plates. Yellow crocuses in Grandpa's garden next to the red brick driveway. I think of the painting of the corn which hangs in Grandma and Grandpa's house, an homage to their years in Iowa. The yellow dress in A Young Girl Reading by Fragonard. Van Gogh's yellow in Bedroom in Arles. I love Van Gogh yellow: Yellow sunflowers. Yellow wheat fields. Yellow swirling stars. Coldplay yellow is different, but noteworthy nonetheless.